Reading by the fireplace

I was always a fan or the romantic idea of curling up to a good book and reading it by the fireplace light. Its such a warm, safe and cozy sounding thing... but you know what? Its really not all that great. I mean it is, but its not as perfect as we so often make it out to be. I thought about this last night when I attempted to recreate this idealistic notion while a blazing fire was started upstairs. I pulled up a chair and tried to read The Golden Compass.

I began to realize yet again as I shifted in my seat that all I ever get when I actually try this in real life is strained eyes from bad lighting, a cold back and a leg thats about to go up in flames.

And yet, I still love the idea. Its irrational, really- but somehow my personal memories of how difficult it is to get comfortable by a fireplace are always overrun by this grand ideal thought of being around a fireplace. Anyone else ever notice that kind of quirk about yourself?

An up-what?

There is a guy at our work who is an Elvis memorabilia nut. He probably has the most expensive and biggest collection of Elvis concert stuffs in the North East- his most recent piece that he bought (from eBay of course) was a banner from one of Elvis's last shows. Its framed and everything.

To some extent I can understand something like that- its a piece of history. Also, it has some resale value. But today...

Today he brought in "Collector edition" Elvis Reese's peanut butter and banana cream cup candies. A box full of them (apparently he got several). They aren't too bad- basically regular Reeses cups with banana in them too. But I'll admit, I was kinda weirded out over the bizarre branding of it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an evil capitalist as some of you know, so I think they should be able to do whatever they want to bring in money (within SOME limits). And even though I never got why Elvis was so big, I understand he was. But this is how you celebrate it?

"Hey everyone, 30 years ago today Elvis KILLED himself. Lets make a candy!!! Reeses for everybody, its Elvis's deathday!"

-----

(A more proper post is to follow, I just figured I'd throw this up here so people knew I was alive. I have half a Soulfest post [well, a good page or two start anyway] but now I really want to do a concert post for the Nickel Creek/Fiona Apple concert. One of them will be next.)

Ouch.

Preface

I was going to post an amazing poem and sort of deep ramblings type post next. I had some stuff I've been knocking about in my head for a spell that I had until very recently not been able to render in any discernible form. These were the things that my next post would be about.

But then someone seemed to almost take offense that I posted about a car (or any possession for that matter- the thought!) and seemed to suggest that non-material things would be much more flattering on this blog.

Dude, this blog is me. It's post processed for a number of reasons, sure- but its me. If I get a car, am I not to be happy about that? If I make a good deal with someone, am I to wipe that smile off my face and put on sackcloth and ashes? We live in a world of things material. To not find joy in them would be folly in my opinion. To make them the source of our joy or to buy them hoping they will provide our joy- that is folly was well. I strive to be like Paul- being content with plenty and being content with little.

Strangely, before purchasing the car (and I'll admit, a little bit after it) I had this weird "car guilt" complex. Because it was fun and really cool. No, I didn't spend to much for it. No, it wasn't useless. No, I am not getting this car to attract attention to myself and no I am not getting this car as a status symbol (its 17 years old for Pete's sake!). So why would I feel guilty? There is no reason to make a purchase, and then instead of enjoying it, turn around and wallow in remorse.

..Wait, what the heck? This was supposed to be a shallow "look what I dun wit my here toys, yeahaw!" type posts. Huh... Oh well... I'll just work my point into the story.

Once upon a time...
Now that I have a car that I can commute with (both for [AwesomeCo] and my own meetings), I am less concerned about the trucks quirks, even if they prove fatal. Even if Big Yellow went down, it won't affect my ability to get places. This allows me the freedom to use my truck in a very stupid, fun recreational sort of way... going over trails and through woods, even if Grandmas house isn't on the other end.


I found some power line trails pretty close to us that Brandon and I spent an hour or so with one day. It was pretty fun, but we couldn't go to far on it. Then the other day Brandon told me about some trails over by his work. When our schedules finally matched up, we loaded into the truck and got going.

As it was my truck, I was first. I drove up the trail slowly until I got to a certain point where we parked to get out and survey the road ahead. Mum had warned me to not get stuck and we took the advice to heart- anywhere the terrain looked iffy, we walked through testing the firmness and plotting out how we would steer to avoid this rock here, or that boulder there. We mapped ahead till we found a place we could turn around the truck in- that way we would have the option of going further, but at least we knew we could get back.

I started at the top of a hill, which we went a little ways down in a crazy crossing back and forth manner at first, but after that the path wasn't very hilly- just curvy. Speed isn't the thing in offroading (at least its not the only thing)- you want to be in control and the fun appeal is more in conquering the terrain and going the limits of your vehicle mechanically rather then going as fast as possible. That being said, when we came to the mud stretches, we needed enough speed to make it to the other side. I took the first one- pulled to the right a little over the track to dodge rock number one, cutting it hard to the left for a second to avoid rock two, then straighten out to make it to the other side. I was just about to come to a muddy and futile stop- Brandon was saying "Don't get stuck, don't get stuck...." and I was replying "I know I know, almost out..." We were loosing speed, but just before we would have come to a stand still my front wheels grabbed solid land and pulled me out. Perfect.

After that I the ground rose a couple of feet and curved around again to present a second muddy area. This one was not so tricky as it was a much clearer shot and I basically just powered through it. So far, so good.

We came to the little area where we could turn around and parked the truck. Hopping out, we ran up the trail a bit and saw another mud pit- this one much worse. "I dunno..." we said. We wanted to drive further, so we followed the trail up a bit more by foot to come to a small wetland area complete with frogs resting in a shallow lake. "Okay, not going to work..." we said and turned back. After investigating a fork in the trail that also lead to disaster, we headed back to the truck. "Your turn Dude!" I told Brandon as a handed him the keys. He got in, adjusted the seat and all that, then we were off.

He deffinatly didn't want to get stuck. The first mud pile he powered through a little faster then I did and got over with no problems at all. Now we wound our way down and around to the second one. Coming back to this mud area from the other direction meant we didn't have any straight lead up to it like the last time. It was just sort of there, and our front wheels were almost in it . He laid the gas down heavy.

Too heavy, IMHO. We were bucking like bull riders, and when your front wheels are in the air steering is much less effective. Long story short, we hit a rock or two. Hard. From the air.

(...okay thats a bit over dramatizing it I guess. What I mean is that I my front wheels went up and then slammed down on a rock I think).

We heard an awful scraping sound, drowned out only by the noise of the engine and Brandon's perfuse apologies. We figured there was some damages- but at this point we weren't out of the mud yet so we were committed. He pressed on till we were out of the mud pit. He threw it into park and we got out of the vehicle to see what happened.

Immediately I started to look around for something that had come off of the truck. I don't have a skid plate and it really sounded like I hit something on the undercarriage. But after looking behind us on the track for awhile and around the vehicle we didn't find anything laying about. We got back in and started to roll out some more. As we started to drive, suddenly I heard a weird sound-

"ka-thump....ka-thump....ka-thump"

Again we stopped the truck, and again I jumped out. This time, I saw the problem. The right front tire was flat, and a little bit off the rim. "Oh man, I popped the tire off the rim..." Brandon observed. Oh well- I had a spare, no big deal. I dug into the back of my truck and fetched out the tire-iron, then the jack- oh wait no! I don't have a jack. Shoot.

This proved to be a problem. For a while we tried to figure out how to drive it into some terrain that would lift the wheel off the ground for easier access, but after that failed we surveyed the terrain ahead of us and decided to drive it up and out onto the road (I drove this time). We got it there and pulled it to the side, flashers on. Then we proceeded to go door to door asking for a jack.


Two no-one homes later and one "don't have one" later, we called in the infantry- that'd be...that'd be my mom. We called my mom, who found the floor jack and brought it over to us.

But before that happend, a cop came and...well I guess he couldn't really pull us over since we already were, but he pulled over, and did the whole "guilty till proven innocent" thing. I was all smiles with him, having a good time but boy was he nervous.

"Whatcha got here?"
"Just a flat."
"Where were you?" (Clearly a rhetorical question since the trails were to the right and my muddy tracks to the road were right in front of him.)
"Over there on the trails..."
"What were you doing?"
"We were just going around on the trails."
"WE? Who's 'WE'?"
"Me and my friend."
"Wheres your friend?"
"He's just over the hill...hes taking a break"
"He's what?"
"Just takingabreak..."
"What he doing?"
"He's taking a leak Officer."
"Can I see some I.D.?"
"Sure..." (pull out my wallet, give him the ID then put my wallet and hands back in my pocket)
"Sir please remove you hands from your pockets!!"
"Oh, okay right..."

It continued. We got back to the topic of what I was doing.

"Supposed to be there?" (Strangely worded...its not like that was our calling, but...)
"Yes officer- or I mean, we aren't not supposed to be over there."
"Is that so?"
(trying not to take the confrontational bate)
"Yes Officer I believe so-"
"That your land?"
"No sir, but its public access."
"Is it?"
"...yes officer- I mean, I am not trying to contradict you sir but I am fairly sure it is. Is it not?"
"Its the power companies property"
"Yeah, but its public has public easement, doesn't it?"

I could tell he didn't know this, but he was really nervous about it. It was almost like he wanted us to let on to what was legal or not. It wasn't really going to work since apparently we didn't know anything he didn't either way. About that time Brandon came back from the hill and joined the fun. Asked him what we were doing, he told 'em we were mudding, officer asked for ID, etc.

When he turned to go to the cop car and we took a step forward while we asked if he had a jack he got scared again (though this time I suppose I can understand it)- "Please do not approach the vehicle!!! Please step back and remain by the truck!!"

Phew... I tried and tried through smiling and making small jokes to get this guy to laugh but the most he did was crack a "you stupid youth" sort of smile. I guess thats something. We didn't get written up for anything after he found out that there were no warrants for our arrest, so thats cool. He did tell us not to go on those trails because they were the private property of the power company. He wouldn't tell us anywhere we could go, just that we should take it up with our towns.



After he left and we were waiting for the floor jack to arrive, the person who didn't have a jack for us came back out. "I'm really sorry, I feel kind of stupid I have 4 cars and not one that will fit yours... did you guys get someone?" We told him we had- he was really nice. Hung around while we changed the tire and even let us use his pliers. While we worked we told him about what the cop told us about it being the power companies property."

"Nah, that all back there is MY property, actually."

Oh, huh... go figure. I suppose if we ever had the urge to go back to that trail we could ask him for permission then... not that this will happen. This kind of maintenance is not really in my budget (when we got the wheel off, we found out that the rim was bent. Yay us).

Moral
Okay, so I said I'd tie this story in with the point of my preface. This at least won't take long- I just wanted to say that I didn't really care that Brandon busted up my wheel. Its material. We are all safe, its an accident, I've broken things before. I don't want to be the type that freak out when something of mine breaks, even if it cost me something. Its just not worth getting upset about it. I'm sure he feels worse then I do as it is anyway- I know I would and I don't want to make things worse.

Thats how I want to enjoy material things- they come, you can enjoy them, but when they go (I'm Not to say my truck is dead- I drove it home and everything) , just don't worry about it. Its just things. I want to be able to do that with everything, especially when I have a family. "Oh, you drove my car through the garage junior? Well just next time don't drive until your over the age of 10." "What, you burnt the clutch out Susan? No honey, don't worry about it I did the same thing with my dads."

The world is made up of things. Enjoy them. But don't rely on them- after all they are just things.

Google is trying to make me hate them

...and you know how hard that is. I believe I've stated in previous entries that I would do something to the effect of jumping off a cliff if they asked me to. Well- NO longer.

So they bought blogger- fine. Thats cool; their GOOGLE, thats kind of what they do. They buy important stuff and make it better or make it free, or both. I had no problem with that. Then for the longest time, they had this "new blogger in beta!" but I didn't join up. Well, its out of Beta they say now. Thats great! That means its stable, right? And better? Or at least, it works over 80% of the time?

Apparently, google is using an ancient meaning of the word Beta- its a little archaic, but I did some research and I found the word. The root for this is in the latin "Beaht" which literally means to suck at life, and the English colloquialism "duh" which means to express one's less then adequate mental prowess. In their defense, now that I think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. I just was using the wrong definition.

If you are reading this, it means you got to the site. Congratulations! You're doing pretty good for yourself already. For me, I usually have to type the URL, hit enter, wait for it to NOT load all the way, then hit refresh (which I fancy is sort of like a slap in the face, because it makes me feel better) at which point it comes back like someone awaken from stupidity. At least, this has been my experience in Firefox. Two or three different versions of Firefox.

But even if you are reading this, the problem still remains that you are reading this, not the other post which I made. What other post? Oh, you know- the one with all the pictures and witty titles- you remember, it had pictures of [AwesomeCo] finally, and my truck and... what, you don't remember that post? Huh- neither did GOOGLE.

Yeah- google kept timing out while I tried to save that post. Now, if this was a little startup company that got really popular, I would totally understand bandwidth issues- but guys, were talking frick'n GOOGLE here. There is no excuse. They are basically half of the Internet's bandwidth anyway.

*exhales* Okay. Sorry. I had to rant.... *quickly saves before Google grows wise to his plans*
NOTE: Before saving this, I copied it to wordpad. Which is good, because the first two tries died. NOT EVEN KIDDING.

Alright, now on to topics which I have neglected. I feel I owe Gwyn a shoutout, because she is basically awesome and the funniest person she knows, and because she gave LON and I our own post.

The other day, LON and myself got to go hang out at her swing'n dynamite pad. Its pretty cool- shes got a kitchen, a bathroom, a bed, and when we were there, a Christmas tree. Being in that close proximity to self-reliance makes you feel cooler- like you too are basically there. Or you can pretend to be and call yourself cool. So, thanks Gwyn. Thanks for making me able to pretend to be cool.

Oh, and another thing- which she tends to not enjoy herself but I find absolutely awesome is her ability to get lost in her own backyard. Recently, she asked use if we had ever been in her car and not gotten lost at some point. We started to open our mouths to assure her that we had, and that she didn't always get lost.

Then we shut them again and kind of just laughed akwardly.

But thats all fine, because LON Gwyn and myself get lost, we just laugh more and end up doing something totally arbitrary like talking in accents until we get unlost (or TRYING to anyway).

and- HOLY CRAPOLY, another long post. I'm sorry guys. I'll cut it short right now, honest.
I think I have write-iteous or something. Weird.

Mondays are a very bad word

"But is this not a Tuesday post?" you ask.
"Yes. Sorta." answers I.

You see, I work in the twilight blurry spaces between the definitions of actual "days" as normal people call them. I make up my own hours of sleep and waking- nature be darned. With such a chaotic schedule, you think Monday’s bad fortune would not be able to find me. You'd be wrong.

I did give it the shake for 2 weeks, I will tell you that. But I couldn't run forever. Shortly after buzzing around and causing general Mondayness for the Green Dragon Rider, Mday flew its horrid destructive path to me. Heres how it went down.

Actual Monday day: A very good experience. It buttered me up like a fool. I went to the Marzolfs and played the cash flow game, Jessica H. came over and joined us, I had a crazy multi layer ice-cream cake desert that Lyndsi had constructed- twas beautiful. Twas bliss- nay, twas ignorance my good friends.

I should have caught on that something was up. Its obvious now- Monday was laying it on so thick it was ridiculous. How thick? How bout this: After leaving the Marzolfs, I actually heard none other then Mute Math ON THE RADIO. It was on the indiest of indie stations, 91.5 FM, and it was crystal clear. I got to hear most of the track "Noticed", a song among my favorites of all time, on the radio. It was good. It was too good.

But the even Monday grew tired of the sickening sweetness. I got home at 10:00 ish. So- think about this- is it possible for me to go to bed at 10:00 and wake up at 12:20? What is even the point? Monday decided to show me the futility. Basically, I layed in my bed waiting for it to be midnight:twenty. I got up. I read some online comics. I went back to bed, and waited again. The second the alarm beeped I snapped up and turned it off. Enough of this, I thought to myself, lets stop pretending to sleep and get to work already.

I got up and turned the coffee on for my folks and myself. I thought it a nice thing to do. I waited. It wasn't coming out. I looked at the time. It was 12:27. That coffee better start coming out of that darn whole soon, or I'm not going to get any. 12:29. I look behind the machine. Oh RIIIGHT... its unplugged.

Right before the coffee was done brewing, I remembered that I wanted to email myself a file at work. I ran down stairs and did the deed. When I came back up, it was about 12:37ish. Dad had risen. That was good. I didn't want to have to wake him- it was nice enough of him already to wake up and drive me to my work at 1am. I poured my coffee and we were out the door by 12:40. Perfect! I thought to myself, Today is going PERFECT.

Somewhere in a dark corner, Monday laughed at me. But it didn't protest my bliss. It knew that my fall was soon. It knew I wouldn't be laughing then.

We arrive at the door of [AwesomeCo].

"Love you dad!" I say as I give him a hug goodbye, "Thanks for driving me."
"No problem. Goodnight!" he answers, and climbs into the big red Ark. Just before he closes the door, I fall to the ground, struck to the core by a horrible epiphany.

"Nooooooooooo......" I whimper.
"What?" My dad asks, but then answers his own question before I break the news. "Let me guess- I.D. Badge?"
"Yeh-heh-hesss..."I fane cry. "MaaAAN!!"
"You'll have to have someone else let you in now; its too late to get back."

I knew he was right. I pulled out my PDA, and he through me his cell phone. I started digging through the numbers. I found my desk phone. I called it. I then got the number for the lobby and called it. As I was making this call, I caught the eye of one of my co-workers. He saw me and made a strange face, then nodded and started walking my way. I hung up the phone, and told my dad I was good. He bid his farewells once more, and drove off into the distance.

Big D., the co-worker who opened the door for me, answered graciously my apologies. "Everyone does it once or twice." He buzzed me through the few doors I need to get through to get to my desk. I felt so lame.

Our business has a laid back, friendly atmosphere. But that doesn't mean we take security lightly. Its an important company, and in every zone of the building you have to buzz to get in. You can leave, but you can't get back in without using your I.D. Badge. I can't go to the bathrooms and comeback with out using my card. I had to sheepishly use my co-workers once or twice. I combined trips.

Then I get on my computer and start checking through my email. A subject caught my eye and hung on the screen ominously. That CAN'T be for today... I thought to myself. It was.

Apparently, my co-worker T., the one that shares my shift, wasn't coming in today. Car trouble. What’s the big deal you may ask? Oh, nothing much. Only that he was GIVING ME A RIDE HOME.

So here I was. No ride home, and no I.D. Badge to let me roam around freely in the building.

Not that I had many roaming minutes anyway. Today everything happened at once. One of our most reliable servers didn't get its files on time. We waited till they were supposed to be in, then we got on the phones to call the company. The contact field in the call up sheet was blank. We had never had to call this company for this file- it usually completed first, so no one really knew off the top of their head the number or contact name. D. looked for a long time and couldn't find it. He decided he'd have to wake up one of our guys on call. But first he went outside to take a smoke. When he left, I opened several search windows and a few internal web sites. In 6 minutes, I found numbers and contacts for the company in another document. When he came back, I casually showed him the list. "Where'd you get this?" he asked. I told him. He kept looking at it and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, operations... lets call them. Why not." So he called them. I overheard his conversations while I sat and logged down some other server jobs. He got someone, but no one was sure they were the contact he wanted. He had to keep spelling out the file name. "Yes, you send us this file." he kept saying. "Yes, normally- every day, 2am. This is the first time its not been here." They'd say they’d call him back.

Every time they'd call him back, it would be another person, but they would ask about the file name and not know if they handled it. It was frustrating D., I could tell. Finally a big higher-up called him back and asked him what was going on. He explained it, and the guy knew what it was. "Okay, thanks. We'll try to get it out to you... otherwise...well, I guess we'll just do with out [service name] today...".

He called us back later saying he "Thought he might have found it." D and I joked that perhaps it was under the bed all this time. The file was supposed to be in at 2. It came in at 6:50something.

That was just one of the issues today. D was working the phones much harder then I was with a few other companies that were having issues. Something confused us because our servers processed a file earlier then we thought possible. The lightened holiday schedule apparently caused the mainframe to come back up faster then normal to process the files, and it took them. Our monitoring software wasn't even watching till 8, and it had already finished at 7:08. This little issue caused much confusion.

By 8, things were back on course. The late late file was finally processed and that basically finished what I had to do. My friend and fellow brother in the Lord, R., gave me a ride home- even though he was going the other way. So it all worked out. And now- I'm going to make some calls and lay my head to sleep.

For I have faced Monday, and I have overcome. Now I must rest.

Small disappointments

Well, my last entry or two have been all about happyish things. So I figured I'd pop the collective cheerful outlook balloon now, and metaphorically rain on any parades that might be passing. Ladies and gents, with out further ado- a list of things I am disappointed in.

First, lets deal with things close to home. I am disappointed, not only with myself but in all of you for not realizing for over a stinking YEAR that I spelled "Reepicheep" incorrectly with as "Repicheep".

A) To say I am a Narnia fan is an understatement close in kin to saying that "the Beatles were stars" or "Being dipped in hot oil stings a little". So I should know these things. Furthermore, Reepicheep is one of my favorite characters in all the series if not THE favorite character. How could I do this to such an honerable beast?
B) I am literate for crying out loud!

In my defense (for what its worth) my first instinct was to go for "Reepicheep". But something gave me pause, and I SWEAR I rememer looking it up somewhere online and thought that I was wrong, and therefore thought I was correct in spelling it "Repicheep".

And now I have had this name for about a year or more on blogger. Flash forward to about a week ago- I went to a surprise party for Jim (which, I must say , pWnd! Props to you, Steph. and fam for pulling it off). The person's house who hosted the party also had FIOS (which is an amazing high speed internet running on fiber all the way to the house, but thats a topic too happy for this post). So to try it out, and for a little shameless self-promotion, I go to this very website. Right away Steph says "Thats great, but you've spelled Reepicheep wrong". To which I get all defensive and say "no no no, I thought so too but look it up" and I triumphantly bring up wikipedia....and fall flat on my proverbial face.

So that was rant number 1. Its fixed now, but I can't believe I went so long with out knowing my error and I am saddened at heart to know that no one else corrected me.

While I am still complaining about this community, it also saddens me that no one got the obvious coded message in the previous post. What do you all have, lives or something?

Thats actually about all I can manage to be dismal about. I'll tell you one thing I am NOT dismal about right now: GreenDragonRider's upcoming story about What happened to Susan. I am so excited about this project you have no idea. Everyone go over there and show her love in the comments so she gets encouragement and all that stuff.

Oh, and here are the only two photo's from the computer smashing party that wasn't:

Shinyish pile of metal and wire on the end of the table closest to camera is copper. Its a bad picture; I know. You see it was stuck on Black and white and I couldn't fix it, and on top of that the memory card filled up after I took two pictures. Bummer.

From left to right: Mr. Sledgehammer, partly concealed by Mr. Dead and Dying Monitor Tube. Far right and off picture: Mister and Misses Plastic monitor shell and their two kids.